Acid reflux: you may not know you have it

Asthma

in t h e

Olympics

If you watched much of the 2000 Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia, you may have learned that quite a few of the athletes had asthma. This is not a new observation. Scientists have been interested for some time in the seemingly high incidence of asthma in these elite athletes. In fact, a number of studies have been done on this topic, with the most recent published in the August 2000 issue of the

Journal ofAllergy and ClinicalImmunology. In this latest study the researchers noted that previous studies had shown an above-average incidence of asthma among the United States' athletes who had corn-

peted in the 1996 Summer Olympics. Approximately 20 percent of those athletes had a past history of asthma, symptoms that suggested asthma, or took asthma medications. The rate of asthma was also high in the 1984 Summer Games. The researchers set out to examine the Winter Games, focusing on the 1998 Winter Olympics, held in Nagano, Japan. The researchers evaluated the athletes' responses to questions about allergies and respiratory disease in the United States Olympic Committee's medical history questionnaire

MA MAGAZINE

to

subscribe

call

1.800.527.3284

that all 196 participating American athletes had to complete. Forty-four of the athletes (22.4 percent) fit the researchers' criteria for the diagnosis of asthma: They either reported use of an asthma medication, had previously been given a diagnosis of asthma, or both. Thirty-four (17.4 percent) of the athletes were considered to have active asthma. Indeed, these numbers far exceed the rate of asthma in the general population of the United States, which is believed to be approximately 5 to 6 percent. This leads one to question whether intensive participation in sports may put a person at increased risk for asthma. The numbers also demonstrate that the rate of asthma among athletes in the 1998 Winter Olympics was higher than those in the Summer Games of t996 and 1984. The researchers noted that asthma rates vary widely among the different sports. (The highest incidence was in the Nordic combined, cross-country, and short track events, with 60.7 percent of those athletes having taken asthma medicine in the past.) They hypothesize that the environment in which a sport is performed may influence the amount of exercise needed to trigger asthma and perhaps to cause airway damage. The good news is that asthma does not have to limit one's ability to exercise. These athletes, who most certainly had varying levels of asthma severity, were all able to control their asthma so that they could compete successfully at a world-class level in their chosen sport. Acid Reflux: You May Know You Have It

Not

It is well-known that gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) can trigger asthma. GERD is a condition where food and stomach acid flow back into the esophagus from the stomach. It is caused by a weak muscle at the end of the esophagus. Signs that a person has GERD include heartburn, burping, indigestion or difficulty swallowing. But